Monday, July 06, 2015

Photo: Nabil Syam (33),
whose arm was amputated following his injuries, stands with his only
child who survived, Bader, also seriously injured in the attack.
Nabil lost his wife, and 4 of her 5 children. In total 13 members of
the Syam family were killed while they were fleeing in the
street.

One year already, and Gaza is still in
ruins while victims wait for justice.

More than 140 families lost more than
three members or were wiped out entirely during the 2014 Israeli
military offensive in Gaza.

#ObliteratedFamilies is
an Activestills project telling the stories of these
families produced in collaboration with Al Mezan Center for Human
Rights.

One year after the beginning of the
Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, the situation in Gaza
is appalling. It is intolerable to think that
the survivors are left alone in the ruins with the pain of losing
loved ones and no prospect of a better future.

Activestills collective calls upon
activists and persons of conscience to spread these photos in their
communities by making available an exhibition kit including digital
images ready to be printed and explanatory text.

In return, we ask that you to send us
back photos of the street exhibits, with the location so we can
invite people to see it; and to put it on social media with the
hashtag #ObliteratedFamilies.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Activist distributes leaflets against Pinkwashing just in front of an Israeli supporter who distributes Israeli flags with rainbow colours

Israeli flags with rainbow colours were distributed all over..but so were the flyers against Pinkwahsing

The Palestinian and rainbow flags at the top of the Berlin Victory Column!

(c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org, Berlin, 27.6.2015

Great action against Pinkwashing by
activists who invited themselves in the Christopher Street Day (CSD)
parade in Berlin disrupting Israeli ambassador during his opening
speech and displaying banners against pinkwashing .

Israel cannot
instrumentalize the LGBTQI rights and pride marches to present itself
as liberal and democratic when oppressing millions of Palestinians
including of course the LGBTQI persons.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Activists storm the field in front
of the Reichstag today in Berlin to pay tribute to the thousands of
migrants who died on their way to Europe and protest against European
restrictive migration policies. "Refugees are welcomed here"
was one of the strong slogans used during the action.

The march and action include thousands
of people. Activists storm the fences around the Reichstag field and
dig dozens of symbolic graves.

This action was part of a campaign "die
toten kommen" (the dead are coming) which is organized by the
Center for Political Beauty, a Berlin-based art activist group. There
were actual two reburials of migrants in Berlin the last week.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Photos above: counter-demonstration against the march of the extremist Bärgida (a group that is based on xenophobia and islamophobia, and includes some nazis supporters). Bargida wanted to march through Moabit, a multi-cultural quarter in Berlin. They were prevented by the activists.

Photos above: Bärgida supporters

Photos above: Left-wing activists blocked the street to stop the march by far-right extremists..They were violently pulled away by the German police

At the end the activists protesting the racist march, were far more numerous. The Bargida supporters were only around 100.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Still on the road..Poland. I joined the antifrontex days..which aim to protest against the restrictive European
migration policies.

Activists offer a coffin to Frontex in
Warsaw for its tenth year anniversary.

The budget of Frontex has been
increased. Frontex, criticized for its opacity; and human rights
abuse records, led to a growing militarization and aggressive policy
at the European borders. Migrants are dying at our doors. More than
1,700 people are believed to have died this year so far, compared
with 96 deaths up to the end of April last year, and the numbers are
growing- day by day.

As a migrant says: "our resource can come to Europe, but not the people"

Friday, May 08, 2015

Last night with a group of women activist from BDS-Marseille and a few others we went through the streets of Marseille to set up 5 Activestills street exhibits.
This is about bringing back Palestine, and especially Gaza still in ruins, on the agenda; and reclaiming the public space to raise important issues.
2 sets of the exhibits were about my current project #OBLITERATEDFAMILIES about the families who were entirely killed or in parts last summer during the Israeli military offensive.
For each family, we put the name of the persons killed, their age. The lists are shocking. and so we should continue to be shocked and enraged.. and we should continue to raise fundamental questions about the power structures around us which work very hard to hide the truths.
Another set was about the Separation Wall- more than 10 years after its route was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice; the Wall is still being built and annex more and more Palestinian land.

So we prepared the sets- thinking about the design, organizing the order, the texts, printing, collecting the equipments..and there we went through the night, resolute to accomplish the mission of bringing Palestine into the heart of Marseille..if only for a few hours.